Europe: Act Now to Make Roma Inclusion a Reality

Last month in the Hungarian town of Gyöngyöspata, uniformed neofascist paramilitaries, backed up by skinhead auxiliaries with whips and pit bulls, set up checkpoints and patrolled a Roma settlement with seeming impunity, as policemen stood idly by. According to eyewitness reports, the local police looked on while guardsmen intimidated Roma women and children on their way to and from school, and spat on members of parliament who dared crossed the lines to meet local Roma leaders.

The siege lasted for two and a half weeks. One local mother described how her child came home from school terrified by the taunting from the fascists: "saying that we are going to die, our blood will flow." She said that all parents were keeping their children home from school, but feared being penalized and losing their child benefit if the kids missed more than 50 classes.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban claimed that "ugly things could have happened" and were avoided because the police acted with sufficient deterrent force.

I beg to differ: it is a profoundly ugly thing for democracy when the state’s monopoly on the use of force is usurped by fascist militias acting on the behest of the Jobbik party, whose representatives sit in both the Hungarian and European Parliaments. It is a profoundly ugly thing when ethnic minority citizens are terrorized, abused, and besieged in a manner reminiscent of the 1930s.

Jobbik and its foot-soldiers have vowed to repeat the exercise in other towns and villages across Hungary. This signals a clear intent by the far right to instill fear among Roma citizens. For too many Roma, this scenario seems more likely than the dawning of a new day of inclusion, equality, and mutual respect.

But the latest attempt at forging a strategy on Roma inclusion by the European Union marks a step in the right direction. The European Commission’s request that all member states develop and implement targeted strategies, and devote sufficient resources to promote integration in four priority areas (health, housing, education, and employment) takes it cue directly from the Decade of Roma Inclusion. And this new document may signal that Roma integration has moved from the margins to the mainstream of policy concerns in a wider Europe.

However the framework is lacking in one key area. On March 8, a resolution of the European Parliament called on the Commission (the executive arm of the European Union) to link social inclusion priorities to a clear set of objectives that included protection of citizens against discrimination in all fields of life; promotion of social dialogue between Roma and non-Roma to combat racism and xenophobia; and for the Commission, as guardian of the treaties, to ensure full implementation of relevant legislation and appropriate sanctions against racially motivated crimes. This link is missing.

The challenge facing a European Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies is stark. There are two possible scenarios for Europe 2020:

There is the viable prospect of forward-looking and fully inclusive societies that foster a sense of common belonging, cohesion and mutual respect among all citizens regardless of their ethnicity.

There is another possible future for Europe: One of illiberal democracies and increasingly closed societies where Roma are denigrated and humiliated as scapegoats and pariahs.

Continued exclusion is not only ethically repugnant but also economically stupid: it impoverishes and humiliates Romani men, women, and children every day. Continued exclusion carries a hefty cost for society: as the economists remind us, it’s costly in terms of human capital needlessly squandered.

But there is another cost: continued exclusion and anti-Gypsyism degrades the quality and moral standing of Europe’s democracies and corrupts the sense of citizenship as something that binds us together as equals.

Without a doubt for most people, EU Roma Summits, platforms, and communications seem remote from the reality on the ground. For now, Roma communities continue not only to endure acute poverty and discrimination, but now find themselves literally under siege.

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5 Comments

For several years already the European Parliament demands a "EU Roma strategy", which is different from a "EU Framework for national Roma integration strategies". If it comes to the Euro, the focus is on Brussels. If, however, it comes to profoundly ugly things that reminds of the 1930s, the focus is on the member-states. Not only a clear set of objectives and a guarantee of implementation of legislation are missing... The Framework is again sidelining the Roma community by lashing out leading Roma organizations. The ugliest thing in Europe today, is the political gap in which fascist groups and parties take over control and power. It all happened before.

Hi Bernard, My wife and I visited you in Budapest about 3 years ago, trying to find contacts to establish a pre-school for Roma girls in Tirana, Albania. We very much appreciated your help. It has finally paid off, with the first year of the school's existence concluding this June. We have gotten to know some members of the Soros and Roma communities in Tirana and have been quite impressed. We will support a 2nd year of the school next year -- and with some financial luck will hope it continues to exist and to expand. Please do write us at the above email address and we can detail more of this to you. Fred and Eve Richardson

Dear Fred and Eve: it was a pleasure to meet years ago in Budapest and the memory remains vivid as I was struck by your vision and commitment. I am very happy to hear that the school is up and running and into its second year. And yes, I am interested to hear more about it. Warm regards, Bernard

A question comes to mind. What do the Roma people do to deserve condemnation and exclusion from the societies around them. I have always read that they are extremely clannish, let no one outside their community into their inner circles, they lie, they steal and are beholden only to their own rules outside the rules of the societies they mingle with. Respect is earned, it is not automatic. If they are ultra clannish, do not discipline their own through their own leaders, then the reason they have problems with the societies around them is largely self inflicted.